First-time participant the University of Pennsylvania from the USA has been crowned champion in the Citi International Case Competition (“CICC”) 2014, defeating 17 other outstanding teams from top business schools around the world to take the highest honor in the prestigious annual contest. The winning team devised a visionary strategy for the expansion plan of the Langham Hospitality Group, a key client of Citi Hong Kong.
The CICC reached a new milestone running as Asia’s first and leading case competition bringing around 100 international business students annually to Hong Kong. Sponsored and organized by Citi and co-organized with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s School of Business and Management (HKUST Business School), this year’s competition challenged students to present viable solutions in just 22 hours to address the strategic issues and managerial dilemmas faced by the case company, the Langham Hospitality Group (“LHG”). LHG provided the students with a complex case with an ambitious global expansion plan to win loyalty from the millennial-generation customers.
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Weber Lo, Citi Country Officer and CEO, Hong Kong & Macau, said, “The Citi International Case Competition is one of the many ways Citi contributes to the development of young, competent leaders, who hold the key to our future. Providing the students with a platform to put their knowledge to practice in a business world setting is invaluable to their growth. They gain real-world experience in one of the most dynamic business cities while benefiting from a global exchange of ideas“.
Professor Jitendra V Singh, Dean of HKUST Business School and Michael Jebsen Professor of Business, said, “In its 12th consecutive year, the Citi International Case Competition has established itself as a signature event in the region, which is a testament to a close business-academia partnership to nurture our next generation of global business talent. Thanks to the longstanding support from Citi, some 800 students have benefited from this annual event since 2003.”
Robert Warman, CEO of the Langham Hospitality Group, one of the judges for the competition, remarked, 'It was such a unique privilege for the Langham Hospitality Group to be considered as a case company for this important competition. We've been overwhelmed by the talent, caliber and passion of the students and their presentations. They were not only creative, but they also displayed their keen understanding of our business model when it came to presenting their analysis and proposals. I would like to especially congratulate the finalists for demonstrating in such a compressed time their strong problem-solving skills and ideas that are relevant to our company and industry.”
Held in Hong Kong between October 26 and 31, the twelfth annual CICC attracted 18 teams from 11 countries and regions, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, the U.K. and the U.S.A. The judging panel of the competition comprises of senior executives from the Langham Hospitality Group, Citi Hong Kong and global management consulting firms.
The first and second runners-up are the National University of Singapore and Queensland University of Technology from Australia respectively.
Participating Teams for 2014
Asia-Pacific
1. Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
2. National University of Singapore, Singapore
3. Queensland University of Technology, Australia
4. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan
5. Shantou University, China
6. Thammasat University, Thailand
7. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
8. Tsinghua University, China
Europe
9. Aalto University, Finland
10. The University of Manchester, UK
North America
11. McGill University, Canada
12. The University of British Columbia, Canada
13. University of California, Berkeley, USA
14. University of Florida, USA
15. University of Pennsylvania, USA
16. University of South Carolina, USA
17. University of Southern California, USA
South America
18. Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Brazil